Changing Icons cont'd

Here's a link to the document I created about changing icons. Let me know if you see any problems.

-Carrie

Changing Icons

All,

I've created a document that will provide instructions for changing icons for your content in Angel. I'll post it here in some fashion after it's been edited.

Are there any other tutorials or step-by-step instructions that need to be created?

-Carrie

7.2, Template with navigation and Mentoring

What did I find the most useful/helpful from the ANGEL user conference....hmmm. Like both Cindi and Carrie, I found some sessions more tailored to my needs and my expertise level and other sessions less interesting. I found myself in at least one session that was way too techie for me and at least one session that was more basic than I needed. The most helpful info I gleaned at the conference was about the changes coming in 7.2, the templates Carrie referred to in the Penn State presentation, and the West Texas A&M Mentoring model.

The updates coming in version 7.2 look to be a great addition to our CMS. I especially am anxious to learn more about the wikis, blogs, and podcast area. I really like the idea of having the option to allow students unlimited quiz retakes to achieve mastery. I think I may try this with grammar basic skills. I think having the new mail interface (looking more like Outlook) and the capability of having all courses in one mail server will help with time management. I am sure there will be many more features of 7.2 that I will use and appreciate, but these were the features that I have in my notes.

Speaking of notes....I will upload some of my notes from the conference in the next few days.

The Penn State presentation showed a template with navigation that a team of designers (yes, I said designers) create for the instructor. (yes, designers create the ANGEL site....not the instructor) My notes from this presentation are voluminous! I would like to develop a template that includes a table of contents for the site, a "meet the instructor" page that includes a short video of me introducing myself and the course, a contents navigation menu for each unit, and navigation buttons for forward, backward, and home. I have BIG plans for ways I want to use the information from this session! I do believe it will take a fair amount of time to set up the template, but in the long run the template should save me time.

The West Texas A&M mentoring model is a 7-step program for mentoring a new user in ANGEL. During discussion in the van on the way home from Indianapolis, we talked about our responsibility to the college after attending this conference, and I believe we all have the responsibility to help others use the ANGEL CMS. I don't know if the college will institute any mentoring system at all, but I hope that each of us that attended will be open to helping anyone that asks for assistance. The West Texas A&M model included an online mentoring for adjuncts. I may attempt to set up an online mentoring program for adjuncts....I still need to think about this and plan how it would work, but I am sure it would be beneficial if I can get it started.

Right now I am energized to put into practice some of what we saw at the conference. This next week is when I hope to dedicate 15-20 hours of intense ANGEL time. I hope to get a start at the template and create a document for summer ANGEL orientation. When I get this handout created for the May 31 orientation, I will share it with you.

Cindi's Comment: A Response

If you didn't see Cindi's comment on my first post, I've pasted it in here:

Cool! Thanks for setting this up. I'm glad to hear you think we each found some useful things. I liked 3 or 4 sessions I went to and was disappointed in others. Clearly there is much potential we have not had any clue about. I am going to try and work on the automated personalization for my class. Wow I may have to think about this.

I'll start by responding to the first half. I did find at least one thing useful or helpful or innovative in each presentation I went to - even the ones that I didn't think were that smartly put together. What I was most happy about was the conversation we had as a group during sessions, between sessions, in our hotel rooms, at dinner, and in the car on the way to and from the conference. I think that really showed me that we need to keep the conversation going throughout the semester - even when we're bogged down with grading!

Is it too silly to ask what the best thing we learned was? I have already set up a meeting with Linda (May 30) and am planning on talking to her about orientation (my best thing) and the conference in general. Anything else I should be sure to bring up? Cindi

Too silly? Definitely not! I personally found the following three things very useful:

1. Orientation for students is NECESSARY if you want to retain students. This orientation should be made available online for students who are learning from a distance. I also like Nancy's inclusion of a f2f session that is optional for her students. I can see how that would really benefit many students. I'm still not sure if I truly believe that they should have to go through the orientation before they are allowed to register for the course - I don't know if that would keep students from registering. I do think that it could be a great first module in all of our classes that students must work through before begining major assignments....but do we want to sacrifice that time?
2. Training for faculty has to be hands on, organized, incentivized (is that a word?), and progressive. We can't train faculty in one sitting. I love the idea of a 2 hour training with lots of hands on time within a course. I, like many, really just need a space to tinker around and make mistakes so that I can learn from those mistakes. I also like the idea of a fake or test course to work in so that I don't feel as though I could screw things up.
3. This CMS is basically a website that I can edit to serve my own purposes, whatever they might be. Perhaps the rest of you already have acknowledged this in your minds, but for me it took this conference to make me understand that I can adapt the code to make the course work for me. I've created websites before in frontpage and dreamweaver so I do have some coding experience (although it is fast fading). I realize that I don't have to be so tied to the construct that already exists. At the same time, however, I did enjoy hearing about some of the templates that institutions are "forcing" on their departments. I loved the idea of the course orientation, table of contents, etc that was standard on all of the PSU Ag courses. That made sense.

What about the rest of you? What did you find the most useful/informative/exciting about the conference? You can post a reply to this post or you can create your own post. If you aren't sure how to create a post, let me know.

-Carrie

Hands On Orientation

Carrie, thanks for settin up this blog. It will be fun to continue our conversation (begun at the ANGEL users conference, and strengthened in the van) in this manner. I do believe that sharing our knowlege will help instructors and students alike as we continually work to have pedagogically sound online courses at HCC.

The orientation conversation was stimulating for me, both at the conference and in the van. I have many ideas swimming around my mind about things I hope to include in the online orientation we create. Let's get started!!!

Before the spring term ended, I made plans to hold an orientation session for my summer students. I plan to help students feel more comfortable with the ANGEL interface. I am not requiring this f2f session, but hope some of the students that are less confident with online learning will show up for some help.

I am more than willing to have other instructors send their students for help that night as well. Details: May 31, 6-7:30pm, Grundy 222. I don't plan to have any set presentation, but rather it will be a come 'n go session so I can help students individually or in small groups. My goal is for the student to be able to log on, navigate the tabs in ANGEL, find their first series of assignments, and understand some of the basics: drop box, mail within ANGEL, discussion forum, calendar, etc.

Any thoughts on other skills I should suggest students practice that night in their class? I think I will send this info to Sarah U and ask her to email all online summer instructors to let their students know they can participate (not required) in this orientation session.

Let's get together SOON to begin the online orientation planning and creation.

Back from Indy

We just got back from the Angel Users Conference in Indianapolis. Based on the conversation had at the conference and in the van on the way home to Iowa, it was a great experience for each of us. I think each of us walked away with a couple good ideas for our own classes.

I, personally, plan to work this summer on creating some good templates for unit pages, create a set of good instructions for my students (using the resources Angel has available), have long conversations about orienting students to and preparing students for Angel, discuss training needs, create some quick guides for instructors, and develop more visual interactions for my students.

Hopefully this blog will serve as a good space for our discussion!

-Carrie